"Kevin Grittner" <Kevin(dot)Grittner(at)wicourts(dot)gov> writes:
>> yamaguti=# select distinct max(j) from t1;
>> ERROR: could not find pathkey item to sort
> For the benefit of anyone searching the archives for the problem we
> just hit, this message also occurs in 8.3.1 and also occurs against
> the above test table for this statement:
> test=# select max(j) as "maxj" from t1 order by "maxj";
> ERROR: could not find pathkey item to sort
> Neither statement causes the error when run against a build from
> REL8_3_STABLE from 35 minutes ago (2008-04-22 10:15 CDT).
Yeah, this was repaired here:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/2008-03/msg00563.php
The fix will be in 8.3.2.
regards, tom lane